Mitt Romney, struggling to make ends meet

I hate starting with disclaimers, but DISCLAIMER: I’m a registered Republican, as I’ve mentioned many times before. Doesn’t mean I always vote Republican; as a matter of fact, the last Republican I would’ve voted for in a presidential race was George Bush, the “H.W.” one, back in 1988. Only problem there was I wasn’t yet allowed to vote, age-wise. But I would’ve voted for him.

So I suppose I’m a wandering Republican. To nutshell my political views: Socially liberal, fiscally conservative. And being that I don’t make enough money to be in favor of tax cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy, my votes usually come down more on the “social” side than “fiscal” side.

Mitt Romney will not get my vote. Why? There are countless reasons, but I figure I’ll highlight one today: He’s a punk. May even be a sniveling punk.

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(Time for another ... DISCLAIMER: I found the following on DailyKos.com. I don’t routinely read DailyKos.com. I followed a link from a Facebook friend. I normally get my partisan, slanted take on the news from The Drudge Report, thank you very much.)

So why is Romney a punk, possibly sniveling? He most recent campaign ad, which starts out like this: “I got the chance to start my own business. I know what it’s like to hire people and to wonder if you’re going to be able to make ends meet down the road.”

So where do I begin … first of all, he started his business, Bain Capital, with absoulutely zero risk attached to it.

According to a 2008 Boston Globe article— one of a seven-part series on the former Massachusetts governor — it was revealed the offer to start the business (from Bill Bain, Romney’s employer who ran Bain and Company) came with the following terms: If the business failed, Romney would get his old job and salary back (plus raises), and a tidy “cover story” absolving him of any fault for the failure.

That would be a nice way to “start” a business, eh? If you fail, you get your old job back and no one knows you failed.

So did he start his own business? Sure. He did. But not like any of us. If he succeeded — which, granted, he did (not even going to get into the hows and whys of that) — he would become wealthy. And if he didn’t succeed, he would’ve become … somewhat less wealthy.

As for the next part of his statement, “I know what it’s like to hire people,” well, yeppers on that. He probably did do some hiring. I won’t even fact-check it.

And then the last bit there, “and to wonder if you’re going to be able to make ends meet down the road.” Well, come on. What to say to that. How about … “barf?” (How’s that for political analysis right there? “Barf.”)

Listen — he was already a successful businessman by the time the offer to start Bain Capital came around, and as evidenced a few paragraphs ago, it wouldn’t have mattered if he face-planted. He would’ve gone back to his old gig, no worse for wear.

So “make ends meet?” No. Most Americans, when they wonder if they’re going to “make ends meet down the road,” they are forced to consider homelessness, welfare, food stamps. Romney had to consider going back to his big-time job (not to mention having big-time family wealth sitting on the sidelines.)

To be clear: I’m not slamming Romney for being a rich, smart, successful businessman; that, I applaud. I’m slamming him for being a punk. The ad is so disingenuous, it simply makes me angry. As an American.

To butcher up the old line about George W. Bush: Mitt Romney was born on third base, but thinks he got hit by a nasty fastball to get to first, stole second in daring fashion, and forced the pitcher to balk him over to third.

Not quite.

Why can’t he just tell the truth? That he was born wealthy, but instead of sitting on his butt and smoking weed or whatever, he went out and worked like a dog to get more? To become what he became, which was — no question about it — wildly successful. Wouldn’t that get more fence-sitters like myself over to his side? (That’s a rhetorical. Answer is a big ol’ “YES.”)